Propping up Peyton: Developers, Corporate Executives, and an Exclusive Beach

To date John Peyton has raised $1,156,016 for his mayoral re-election bid. But where has this money come from? We all know that the Mayor, by the very nature of his position, will forge business relationships. So we thought it would be interesting to see just exactly where these relationships are strongest - evidenced by who is bankrolling his re-election campaign. Here is what we found.

Corporate executives, assumably from all segments of business, gave heartily with a total of $132,925...about 11.5% of the total funds raised. One could speculate that many of these executives have cozy relationships with Herb, John's father.

Attorneys and law firms were another notable donor with $58,800 (about 5.1% of the total funds). This could be looked at as a "thank you" from the law community to Peyton for his almost doubling of the new courthouse budget from the voter-approved $190 million to the Peyton-approved $390 million.

Much to our surprise though (or maybe not) was the industry that gave the most. It was the real estate, property development and construction industries (which included engineering firms). Together this property sales, construction, and development industry conglomerate donated over $187,000! That accounts for almost 20% of Peyton's total!

Why does the property development and construction industry favor John Peyton so much? We've all heard rumors about the developers who buy-off city hall...is that what is going on here? And then there is the Gate Land Development Company. We can only speculate.

Before we go, we'll leave you with one other note of interest. A little over 8% of Peyton's contributions came from one zip code - 32082. If you live in Duval County though you may not be familiar with this zip code that gave the mayor over $90,000.